Sociological Forum Sociological Forum, Vol. 25, No. 3, September 2010 DOI: 10.1111/j.1573-7861.2010.01190.x Out of Sight, Out of Mind? Patterns of Transnational Contact Among Chinese and Indian Immigrants in Toronto1 Eric Fong2, Xingshan Cao2, and Elic Chan2 There has been considerable discussion in recent decades about the integration patterns of new immigrants. Recognizing advancements in technology and the increased economic integration of countries, some researchers have suggested that the emerging integration trend for immigrants is the transnational pattern, whereby immigrants maintain contact with the home countries. To advance the discussion, this study focuses on general transnational contact, a basic form of transnational activity. The study draws from recently collected large-scale survey data to explore the patterns of transnational contact within two recent immigrant groups, Asian Indians and Chinese, in Toronto. Our findings show that only a small percentage of immigrants maintain intensive and extensive transnational contact. As well, our findings are less consistent with the transnational perspective than with the assimilation perspective on the effects of socioeconomic background on transnational contacts. KEY WORDS: assimilation; immigration; social connections; social networks; technology; transnationalism. INTRODUCTION Many observers have suggested that advancements in communication technology have transformed immigrant ties to the home country (Levitt and Schiller, 2004; Schiller, 1999). This assertion has led to considerable discussion in immigration studies in recent years (Alba and Nee, 1997; Waldinger and Fitzgerald, 2004; Zhou, 1997). The once dominant assimilation perspective has been challenged by the transnational perspective (Levitt et al., 2003; Portes, 2001). The assimilation perspective suggests a gradual decline in social and economic contact with the home country as immigrants stay in the new coun- try longer, while the transnational perspective sees immigrant adaptation as "the process by which transmigrants, through their daily activities, forge and sustain multi-stranded social, economic, and political relations that link 1 We appreciate Wenhong Chen for constructing the network variables for this analysis. The research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada. 2 Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, 725 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5T 1P9; e-mail: fong@chass.utoronto.ca. 428 2010 Eastern Sociological Society
Transnational Contact Among Chinese and Indian Immigrants in Toronto 429 together their societies of origin and settlement" (Basch et al., 1994:6). This perspective emphasizes the "pluri-local nature" of immigrant activities (Pries, 2005). It suggests that immigrants today maintain ties with home countries even after they have been in the new country for a considerable period of time (Levitt and Glick Schiller, 2004; Schiller, 1999). Since its introduction to the study of immigration, the transnational concept has generated a substantial amount of research. A recent review of sociological immigration literature suggested that research employing the transnational approach published in the top three U.S. sociological journals and International Migration Review, a journal devoted to international migra- tion studies, had increased by more than 20 times since 2000 (Fong and Chan, 2008). Global Network, a journal specifically devoted to exploring topics related to the transnational activities of immigrants, was launched in 2001. Without doubt, there has been